MultiChoice South Africa will use OpenTV as a key partner for the roll out of advanced digital television services on their DStv satellite platform. OpenTV will act as system integrator for the project, which plans to use OpenTV middleware to power high-definition digital video recorders and push video-on-demand services.
“OpenTV has been one of our key partners in our efforts to offer advanced services and improve the overall user experience,” said Nolo Letele, the chief executive of MultiChoice South Africa. “We are excited about the new applications supported by OpenTV Core2 and OpenTV PVR2, as well as the other applications and upgrades that will provide customers with new ways to enjoy their video services.”
Alan Guggenheim, the president and chief executive of OpenTV, said: “OpenTV is focused on developing innovative solutions that will help operators migrate to the vision of an integrated video and media world where end users have easy access and great entertainment interacting with their content.”
MultiChoice South Africa has just over a million digital subscribers and has previously launched personal video recorder and interactive services.
The new platform will provide push video-on-demand, broadcasting material to be recorded locally in set-top boxes for subsequent immediate access. The service will use Irdeto for content protection.
MultiChoice South Africa is a subsidiary of the Naspers group, which also controls Irdeto. OpenTV is now controlled by the Kudelski Group.